. The world of animal life. Zoology. 46 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE. Claw of the Lion shall have a very good idea of the way in which the lion's body is formed. In the first place, the lion has claws of just the same kind, only they are a great deal larger and stronger. The lion feeds upon living animals, and requires some kind of weapons with which to capture them; and such weapons he has in his claws. As these claws must always be kept sharp, there is a sheath into which each of them can be drawn when it is not being used. In this way the points are pre- served from being worn away by rubbing a
. The world of animal life. Zoology. 46 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE. Claw of the Lion shall have a very good idea of the way in which the lion's body is formed. In the first place, the lion has claws of just the same kind, only they are a great deal larger and stronger. The lion feeds upon living animals, and requires some kind of weapons with which to capture them; and such weapons he has in his claws. As these claws must always be kept sharp, there is a sheath into which each of them can be drawn when it is not being used. In this way the points are pre- served from being worn away by rubbing against the ground. A dog does not possess such sheaths, and so his claws are always blunt. But no matter how much a lion or cat may run about, the points of the claws never touch the ground. Then the lion must be able to creep quietly up to his prey, so that he may leap upon it suddenly; for many of the animals upon which a lion feeds are so much more swift of foot than himself, that he could not possibly overtake them in fair chase. Underneath a lion's foot, therefore, there are soft fleshy pads, just like those which we may notice on a cat's paw. You know how silently a cat can walk along, and how often it is impossible to hear its footstep. Although the lion is a much larger and heavier animal, he can move quite as noiselessly, and can creep up to his victims without alarming them by the slightest sound. A lion has whiskers, too, like the cat, and they are used for just the same Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Smith, Fred, pseud. , ed. London, Glasgow [etc. ] Blackie and son, Ltd.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1910
